Press coverage about MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) has been trending somewhat positive on Tuesday, Accern Sentiment reports. The research group ranks the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than 20 million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. MSC Industrial Direct earned a media sentiment score of 0.19 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news articles about the industrial products company an impact score of 46.7508024882838 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near future.

Here are some of the media stories that may have effected Accern Sentiment Analysis’s rankings:

MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE MSM) traded down $1.30 on Tuesday, reaching $93.45. 977,685 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 603,661. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $5,280.00, a PE ratio of 22.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.67. MSC Industrial Direct has a 52-week low of $65.42 and a 52-week high of $105.70.

MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 10th. The industrial products company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.06 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $768.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $770.95 million. MSC Industrial Direct had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 19.37%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. sell-side analysts expect that MSC Industrial Direct will post 4.8 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 16th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.48%. This is a boost from MSC Industrial Direct’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 12th. MSC Industrial Direct’s payout ratio is presently 46.27%.

MSC Industrial Direct declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase 2,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the industrial products company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

MSM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of MSC Industrial Direct from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 21st. Susquehanna Bancshares initiated coverage on shares of MSC Industrial Direct in a research report on Monday, September 25th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $77.00 price objective for the company. Credit Suisse Group set a $93.00 price objective on shares of MSC Industrial Direct and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 6th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $83.00 price objective (up from $79.00) on shares of MSC Industrial Direct in a research report on Monday, October 9th. Finally, Gabelli raised shares of MSC Industrial Direct from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, October 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.54.

In other MSC Industrial Direct news, Director Mitchell Jacobson sold 64,040 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.81, for a total value of $6,135,672.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Christopher Davanzo sold 12,046 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.43, for a total transaction of $1,125,457.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,161,521.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 301,627 shares of company stock worth $25,525,942. Corporate insiders own 31.38% of the company’s stock.

TRADEMARK VIOLATION NOTICE: This piece of content was first reported by Daily Political and is the sole property of of Daily Political. If you are viewing this piece of content on another domain, it was illegally stolen and reposted in violation of United States and international copyright & trademark laws. The legal version of this piece of content can be read at https://www.dailypolitical.com/2018/01/16/somewhat-favorable-press-coverage-somewhat-unlikely-to-impact-msc-industrial-direct-msm-stock-price.html.